Savannah

How appropriate I am using "Georgia" font, since we have just explored Savannah and are heading for Atlanta. Savannah was absolutely charming! We had no idea previous to our tour here that the restored city is so well-known for its movie and literature relevance, reconstruction, arts, and food. So we picked up a bunch of trivia along the way.

We saw the park where Forrest Gump sat on the bench, in front of the church where the feather flew around. Nearby was the pub where Julia Roberts went in Something to Talk About. There were the houses seen and used in Cape Fear and The Legend of Bagger Vance. And we were most disappointed to learn that Gone with the Wind was filmed mostly in Hollywood on a sound set. The most famous local literary/cinema creation, however, was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which we had neither seen nor read. Of course, we decided to buy a copy of the book, and 1HW began to read it last night, proclaiming that it was quite strange. We'll let you know.

Other bits of trivia also amused us. It seems that when the city was first founded as a colony by George Oglethorpe for those in prison for not being able to pay bills (sounds like some of the recent credit card rate hikes to me), there were four things prohibited: slaves, Roman Catholics, alcohol, and lawyers. Needless to say, all but the slaves abound today in modern Savannah. In fact, the city allows "open containers," and one can see many people walking around with their "to go cups" of tasty beverages. Everywhere one turns there are CD's of Johnny Mercer music, as his family is from Savannah. And, did you know that a commemorative statue with a hand raised in the air signifies someone who died in battle? That was a new one for us, also. We saw the home of Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts; the Independent Presbyterian church where Woodrow Wilson married Ellen Axson; statues to remember John Wesley, Generals Nathaniel Greene and Casimir Pulaski; and so many old buildings built with the old Savannah pink bricks. There were also countless art galleries, as the city is home to the Savannah School of Art and Design, with some 5,000 students. In the City Market area, signs read, "The Art and Soul of Savannah," indicating the importance of art. And, one simply cannot escape running into Paula Deen and her family, as there are tours with lunch at her restaurant, her store, her cookbooks, her brother's restaurant, etc. Since we are not Paula Deen fans, we ignored all of them and settled on more traditional places for the good food we ate. The Olde Pink House was wonderful!

One other item which amazed us was that the city has a huge St. Patrick's Day celebration, second only to Boston. The town's normal population of 100,000 increases to 700,000, as people flock there to celebrate. We could not even imagine where there would be room for all of them!

So now we head to the Atlanta suburbs where Chris and Traci live, and we are looking forward to our visit with them and grands Brittani and Tyler. Since we have already been to the Atlanta area several times before, this will probably be more of a family visit than a tourist one, which will be quite nice for a change of pace! With beautiful sunny skies and temperatures in the forties, we expect a lovely day! We hope you have the same, wherever you are!